First off, Big Bloo is pushing 220,000 miles for a 2001 Jeep GC. I expect problems to continue to pop up until the times comes when it just is costing too much and I finally retire her. In the mean time, I gotta have something to drive until I get the BAMSFH running. This post deals with the latest quick fix that turned into a nightmare... the front brakes.
Coming back from an event Saturday night, the front right brake started making the metal to metal grindy sound during stops. So of course, Sunday I set aside a couple of hours to check and replace the pads. I do not recall when exactly I had checked the brakes last, but my brain was/is telling me that it was 6 months to a year ago and they were >60% on the pads then. I happen to have the pads from back then when I planned to replaces them and it turned out I just needed to clean and adjust them. Skip now to Sunday when I take the left front apart. It is pretty grungy, but comes apart pretty easy. The slider pins stick a little so I make sure I clean the pins and put fresh grease in them before putting it all back together.
The fun parts comes when I start on the right side. These are cleaner, due to not being close to a known small oil leak on the left side, and I'm hoping for a quick replacement. Problems start almost right away when I notice I cannot adjust the slider pins at all. Crappity crap crap. I put the calipers back on the front end and then loosen the caliper mount pins before pulling the calipers back off. The inner brake pad is gone... as in shiny metal along the top and bottom with a millimeter of pad material before hitting the backer plate. The top slider pin is frozen solid but the bottom one is in better shape than the left side. I tie off the caliper and pull the mount completely free and over to the work bench. Using clamps and wrenches I try to break it free. Nada. Squirt in some WD-40, tap it a bit, try again. Nothing. Let it sit for a while as I go inside to check on ways to remove the pin easier. Come back out 10-15 mins later and soak the pin in WD-40 again, tap it, then try twisting the pin with a wrench. Nothing. Hammer taps. Nothing. Hammer hits harder. Nothing.
Time for the big guns...
I place the mount in a bench vice and clamp down onto the pins top part. Using a 1 1/2" wrench as my fulcrum I try to crank the pin free. Nothing, except for the bench trying to move and the vice loosing grip. Finally I put the pin into the vice itself and try to compress it down into the mount in hopes that that force might break it free. Nothing.
OK, I have now wasted close to 2 1/2 hours on this crap. I clean up and take the mount with me to my friendly neighborhood O'Reillys to see if they have one in stock since online store searches are being dumb. The store close to me doesn't have it. They have the pins, which apparently are a separate thing you have to buy, but they don't have the mount and it would take til Wednesday to get in. Well fuck! I tell the clerk thanks and head to PepBoys, the next shop down the road. The guy there says they don't have it either, but their store in Union City has it... 20 minutes away. Fine... I ask him to call them to hold it for me just in case there is a run on 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee front caliper mounts. They also have the pins in stock so I ask to have those held as well.
Que montage travelling music...
Upon arrival, I ask at the front counter about parts being held for me. They look at me with a blank look on their faces. Fucking asshat at the previous store didn't call them. Sigh... OK 10 minutes of explaining and searching and the guy (who is obviously new to parts look ups) finally goes to get it. I tell him I need the pins as well. He comes back with the mount and then goes and gets the pins. As I open the mount box I find no rubber boots nor are they in with the pins that they go on. Now, normally one would reuse the rubber boots for a job like this. I however cannot reuse the boots since one of them is stuck on with the stupid seized pin. He looks at me with another blank look on his face as I say I need the boots too. Que another 10-15 minutes of searching the parts computer. I had to point out the section he needed to look in to find the boots. They do NOT have them in stock... of course they don't. Does the other PepBoys have them? Don't know... the computer isn't showing stock numbers at all for some reason. Sigh...
Que angry montage travelling music....
Back to the first PepBoys only to arrive just as they are locking up the doors for closing at 6. FUCKITY FUCK FUCK. OK... breathe... Off to the O'Reilly as I know they are still open til 8. They more than helpful guy tells me that he does NOT have the boots in stock but they are in stock at the store in San Jose... 20 minutes away. I ask him to call them to have them hold them for me, I wait while he does, then out the door I go.
Que "done with this stupid day" montage travelling music....
Upon arrival at the SJ O'Reillys, they have the part waiting, I pay for it and leave. No fuss. Finally, something went right.
Que relived to finally be going home to finish this project montage travelling music....
It's dark now, by the time I get home. Place snazzy headlamp on forehead, being assembly and greasing of the new mount and pins. Then putting the new mount onto the calipers and finally putting the new pads into place. It all goes back together fairly easily and quickly, thankfully. All buttoned back up, I fire up the Jeep and pump the brakes for a while to get them back into position and seated. I think there was/is some air in the lines as it took a lot longer than normal to stiffen up. Finally stiffened up to much better than before, I take a spin around the complex followed by a spin around the neighborhood stopping every so often from ~30mph to seat the pads and get everything settled. Satisfied that my brakes won't end up killing me, I clean up and head inside to relax.
Thus ends the saga of the seized caliper mount adjuster pin.
Sure do wish we lived closer to each other cause I sure do need a GreeseMonkeyGeek around here when my Geo needs work, aka especially brakes. Spent $400 last week on a new Fuel pump including tow and labor to the shop to remove the inside the tank fuel pump and replace. After which a friend tells me there is a new way to install a new one outside the tank so if it happens again only a $60 job. May need to lubricate or replace speedometer cables too! :) Wonder if that is my clicky sound. Doesn't help to have a hubby who can't hear anything nor knows much about cars or repairing them except to call the mechanic! LOL Should have spent more time holding wrenches with you, your brothers and dad. Lesson learned to late. Oh, heck just didn't want to have to listen to all the F____ words and such so kept a good distance from the fray. :)
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